


Friends With Benefits

by MidnightStorm6593



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friends With Benefits, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-17
Updated: 2015-06-09
Packaged: 2018-02-09 04:56:59
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 15,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1969824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightStorm6593/pseuds/MidnightStorm6593
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Don't tell me you said what I think you just said." </p><p>"Oh, come on," he says, rolling his eyes. "Don't tell me you've never thought of it."</p><p>Okay, so maybe she had. Once. Or twice. Or maybe a few times. But that had been back when he was just Older Sexy Danger Guy™ and not a crazy, sometimes homicidal vampire.</p><p>"I mean," he continues, "It's bound to happen sooner or later. Preferably sooner, though."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

They had become friends. Sort of.

Somewhere, in between working together to try and save all their asses and commiserating over their failed Gilbert relationships (or, in Damon's case, lack of a relationship), they become friends.

Elena's transition to vampire hadn't been easy at all, especially since Elena had never wanted to be a vampire in the first place. Caroline was the one to help her through it, though, and now she was okay.

Damon had been hoping that since Elena was a vampire, her feelings had changed. However, they hadn't. Elena still loved Stefan and being a vampire had only magnified that love for him. It had crushed Damon and he had taken off for a while, but eventually returned.

She had put Klaus back in his proper body and he had finally taken off a left Mystic Falls and she had been more than happy to see him gone (hopefully for forever). However, Abby hadn't been kidding when she said that the desiccation spell required very dark magic.

The power she felt from stopping Jeremy's heart and desiccating Klaus had felt  _amazing_ and she had become addicted. Damon, having known his fair share of witches through his hundred and forty-some-odd years as a vampire, knew how to detox one from dark magic.

That's how she ended up being his drinking buddy.

If nothing else, Damon had good alcohol.

"We should have sex," he says suddenly.

She promptly chokes on the glass of bourbon she'd been nursing before the past couple of hours.

"Don't tell me you said what I think you just said."

"Oh, come on," he says, rolling his eyes. "Don't tell me you've never thought of it."

Okay, so maybe she had. Once. Or twice. Or maybe a few times. But that had been back when he was just Older Sexy Danger Guy™ and not a crazy, sometimes homicidal vampire.

"I mean," he continues, "It's bound to happen sooner or later. Preferably sooner, though."

She just gapes at him, not sure what to say.

 _Oh, come on,_ a little voice in her says,  _Don't tell me you don't wanna get some._

"Have you ever even had sex before?" Damon asks, interrupting her unwanted thoughts.

"Yeah, me and Jeremy did a couple times back when we were together, in between both of us nearly dying and trying to save everyone," she says defensively before she can stop herself.

"Oh, baby Gilbert was your first? Someone really needs to teach you how good sex is supposed to be."

Her mouth drops open a little bit. Bonnie's always known that Damon could be crass and that he's quite the womanizer, but she certainly hadn't been expecting this.

"Yeah—" she sputters, "But…but…not everyone has like a hundred and sixty plus years of experience under their belt."

"I know. That's a damn shame isn't it?" He replies with a grin.

He drains his glass of bourbon before standing up and walking towards the ridiculously expensive couch she's sitting on. He sits down next to her, a little too close for comfort and she can feel his breath on his face.

"So," Damon says, reaching out and brushing a curl away from her face. His fingers slowly curve along the length of her jaw and his touch feels electric. "What do you say?"

She stares into his icy eyes, contemplating. She'd be crazy to say yes, wouldn't she? On the other hand, a night of crazy, wild sex could take the edge off.

Oh God, she's actually going to do this, isn't she?

"Okay, but first some ground rules," Bonnie says. She somehow manages to keep her voice even, despite the butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

Damon rolls his eyes, but motions for her to continue.

"One: this never gets out.  _To anyone. Ever._ "

"That goes without saying."

"Two: No biting or leaving visible marks."

"You're boring, but fine. Anything else?"

"Just one last thing: This is a one-time thing. No strings, no messy attachments, none of that bullcrap."

"A woman after my own heart."

"Okay, so do you want shake on it or…?" She kind of feels like an idiot in that moment. She just agreed to have sex, but asks if he wants to shake hands to form an agreement?

"I've got a better idea." He pulls her in for a kiss.

It's the first kiss they've ever shared and she's a little surprised at how much she likes it. He thoroughly explores her mouth and she finds it overwhelming in a pleasant way.

Before she even thinks about what's happening, she's in his bedroom and taking off her clothes.

"If I had known I'd be getting naked with someone tonight, I would have actually bothered to shave my legs," Bonnie says dryly as she pulls off her pants. She's not even wearing cute underwear, being clad in simple, but comfortable grey panties that covered everything and a plain blue satin bra.

Damon snorts. "I lived for about seventy years before women actually started to shave their legs and, trust me, it didn't stop me from having sex then."

"Ooh, bringing up the fact that you're an old man. Very sexy."

He doesn't respond, instead pulling her to him and pressing his lips against hers. As he carefully guides her to the bed, he also reaches behind her and unclasps her bra, freeing the fleshy globes. She pulls away from him, slowly climbing onto the bed.

He climbs on top of her and she clumsily tries to paw his shirt off. When it's finally off she drags her hands across his exposed skin, feels every ridge of his abs.

His mouth moves to her jawline, peppering it with little nips and kisses, while one of his hands cupped a bare breast. She gasps when he softly squeezes it, before rolling the nipple between his index and thumb.

She arches into his touch, feeling an insistent throbbing between her legs. His mouth moves from her jawline and goes to cover her other breast.

He continues to play with her breasts until she feels like she's ready to explode and just as she's about to demand him to finally get to the main part, he makes his way down her body, lips trailing down her flat tummy. He slides her panties down and tosses them somewhere over his shoulder and his hands slowly run up and down her thighs as his face moves towards her throbbing center.

"Wait, wait, wait, what're you doing?" Bonnie asks breathlessly, pulling Damon away before he can go any further.

"What do you think?" he responds, giving her a confused look. "Don't tell me Jeremy never—"

"Ugh, yeah, he did, you moron," she says quickly, feeling her skin heat up in embarrassment. The last thing she wants to do is to go over whatever sexual acts she's done with Jeremy while in bed with Damon Salvatore of all people. "I just—I mean, this is just a one-time thing, so I don't really expect you to—oh my God!"

Any thoughts she had are completely interrupted by the amazing things his mouth is doing between her thighs.

He begins with a few long licks at her slit before delving in. When his tongue finally touches her clit, her hips buck and she vaguely hears herself murmuring something, but she's not even sure what. He then slips one finger inside of her, lightly stretching her, and that finger is soon joined by number.

"Yes," she groans, clutching at his hair. "Don't stop, don't stop, dontstopdontstop…"

Bonnie can feel him smirking against her cunt and when he captures her clit between his lips and begins to lightly suck, she can feel herself quickly coming undone.

She's still clenching around his fingers when he presses kisses up her stomach again, before pulling away to meet her face-to-face.

"Good?" Damon asks with a smirk.

"It was alright," she replies, trying to sound like she isn't gasping for breath or just had the best orgasm of her life. She has a feeling that she's never going to be living this one down, though.

The obnoxious smirk remains on his face until he leans down and presses his lips to hers again and she finds that she can taste traces of herself in his mouth. Strangely, she finds it to actually be a bit of a turn on.

His hand slides down her bare body until he grips her thigh, lifting it and parting her even wider for him. She vaguely wonders just when his pants were taken off when she feels his hardness pressing against her entrance. His lips move from hers to press against the throbbing pulse in her neck and with a smooth roll of his hips, he's fully sheathed inside of her. She can't help the small sigh of satisfaction that escapes her lips.

He starts off at a moderate pace and she finds it pleasurable for a bit, but soon she finds herself wanting more.

"Faster," she instructs him breathlessly and he happily complies.

He does some strange rolling motion with his hips that she doesn't quite know how to describe, but it hits a spot in her that almost makes her scream aloud.

"That," she gasps, barely able to get her words out, "Do that again."

And he does it again and again and again.

There's a tightening feeling inside of her and then she snaps like a rubber band, her world bursting into a million colors of pleasure.

When she comes back to reality, Damon is hovering over her. He's panting heavily and sloppily kisses the corner of her mouth.

They spend the next half hour, silently laying side-by-side.

"That was, uh…wow," she finishes lamely, finally breaking the silence.

"Of course it was good. I told you it would be." He grins smugly and turns on his side, trailing his fingers down her bare body with clear intentions of having another go.

"Again?" Bonnie asks, almost incredulous. She feels boneless and can't even imagine being able to go another for another round of sex with him.

"If this is only going to be one night," he says, reaching down to the juncture of her thighs to tease her to arousal, "We should make it  _really_ count."

She gasps and grinds into his touch.

"On second thought, another round actually doesn't sound that bad."


	2. Chapter 2

After a second and then a third round, Bonnie spends a few hours next to Damon in a blissed out state, nearly falling asleep.

She really needs to get going soon, though, because Stefan and Elena could walk in the house any moment. And that would make things real awkward real fast. Hell, Bonnie's surprised that they actually haven't yet.

"Ugh, I need to get going before Stefan and Elena come back here. I wouldn't want to explain this to them and, knowing you, you'd make matters so much worse," she grumbles as she slowly pushes herself into a seating position. "I think I'm going to be walking funny for like a week now."

Damon smiles smugly, tucking his hands behind his head.

Surprisingly, she actually manages to find each article of clothing that had been scattered through his room and they're perfectly intact, too. When she finishes dressing, she looks at Damon and finds herself at a loss for parting words.

What exactly is she supposed to say now? Thanks for the nice, hot, raunchy night of sex? Because that wouldn't be embarrassing or stupid at all.

Instead, she settles for a, "See you later," and heads out.

After she's gone, he lays there for a few moments before getting up and getting dressed before.

Going into this, he'd known that their tentative friendship wouldn't stay the same, no matter what she'd said. She'll probably avoid him as much as possible now. He'd never admit aloud, but he thinks he might actually miss her presence. Knowing all of this, he didn't stop himself from pursuing this one night stand, though…his self-destructive shtick is still alive and well.

When he's fully dressed, he realizes that the room smells like sex and Bonnie and he has no idea how to explain it if Stefan or Elena asks.

Oh, who the hell is he kidding?

If they asked, he'd just make a smarmy comment about them being stupid and down another bottle of bourbon.

It'd be business as usual.

* * *

By the time Stefan and Elena return, Damon is halfway through a bottle of bourbon.

Elena, even with all her shiny new vampire senses, doesn't notice a thing out of the ordinary (or was she choosing to be willfully ignorant?). Stefan, on the other hand, clearly notices something and the look he gives Damon screams 'we'll talk later' and the elder Salvatore knows that no amount of sarcasm will stop the bouts of self-righteousness to come.

"Look, Damon," Stefan says when Elena goes home from the night. "I, uh, can tell what you and Bonnie did tonight and—"

"Ah, and here it begins, Saint Stefan here to lecture me on protecting the virtue of maidens everywhere."

"Look, I can't tell you what to do—" Stefan begins, clearly trying to ignore Damon's remarks.

"And yet, I have a feeling you're going to try," Damon interrupts sarcastically.

"But what I am  _trying_  to say is that I think you're both at a point in your lives where you're confused and without any real direction and it's great that you've been helping each other," Damon scoffs at that one, but Stefan ignores it, "But you both should think twice before being hasty."

"You know for someone who's the younger brother, you sure do a lot of lecturing."

"Damon," Stefan says, giving him 'the look'.

Damon sighs, and sets his tumbler of bourbon down on the coffee table. "It was a one-time thing so we both could take the edge off, so stop worrying about it. Knowing her, she'll probably avoid me for like the next decade, anyway."

* * *

 Bonnie doesn't see Damon for nearly a week.

_And that's not unusual,_ she reminds herself.  _We may have become friends, but it's not like we're always spending every minute of every day together._

It's not like she was avoiding him anything. Nope.

Well, okay, so maybe she's avoiding him a little bit…but she's never had casual sex before in her life. What is she supposed to do? Go on like nothing happened?

_That's exactly what you do,_ she tells herself.  _You remember the hot, raunchy sex fondly, get on with your life, and continue to drink his alcohol because he has the expensive stuff._

It's seven o'clock on Friday night, so chances were Damon would be at  _the Grille_ , buying out their entire liquor supply.

When she walks into  _the Grille,_ Damon is sitting at the bar as predicated. She quickly scans the building for any of her other friends and sees none of them.

"Hey," Bonnie says when she comes up next to Damon.

He looks over at her, a glass of bourbon in his hands and eyebrows slightly raised. "And here I thought you were complete avoiding me."

"Nope, I wasn't" she replies. Pause. "Okay, well I kind of was… _but_ I came here to prove that I can keep to what we agreed on; no-strings and everything goes back to normal."

"You came here to prove a point?" Damon asks dryly. That's just so very… _Bonnie._

"Yes, yes, I did," she replies with a smile and slides onto the stool next to him.

She takes the glass of bourbon that the bartender puts in front of her (is it just her or are the bartenders in Mystic Falls getting more and more lax?) and smiles at Damon before taking a small sip of it.

* * *

Next thing she knows, they're making out on her front porch while she fumbles with her keys. If she didn't know any better, she'd think that she's drunk. She's definitely not, though. Lightweight she may be, but three tiny sips of bourbon just weren't enough to get the job done.

"What the hell are we doing?" Bonnie asks in between kisses as they stumble through the foyer, Damon kicking the door shut behind them.

"I think that's pretty self-explanatory," Damon replies.

He swipes a vase and a key dish off the small table by the front door and she can't even bring herself to care about the breaking glass as he effortlessly lifts her up onto the surface. She really hopes the table doesn't break under her weight, though, because that would definitely be a mood-killer.

"We should probably…" she breaks her thoughts off with a moan as his lips trail down her throat, but she quickly picks them back up again, "We should probably at least make it to my room."

With the way that they paw at each other, she's amazed that they even manage to make it up the stairs without losing any clothing.

The second they reach her bedroom, though, she's up against the wall with her legs locked around his waist and her shirt has disappeared into some dark corner of her room, probably never to be found again.

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," she says. It's a little hard to think, though, when his hand is teasingly squeezing her bra-covered breast. "I mean, this is kinda breaking the 'one-time thing' rule, so…"

He pulls her bra up, and lifts her slightly higher to take a nipple in his mouth.

"Oh, you know what? Fuck it," she mutters, tangling her fingers in his inky hair. His skillful mouth on her breast just feels so  _good_ and the insistent throbbing between her legs just demanded to be fulfillment.

_It's totally worth it,_ she thinks.

He smirks against her breasts and then pulls away to reach around to unhook the fabric and slide it from her body. While his lips wrap themselves around a nipple again, his hand slides down between them to reach the button on her jeans and he lets her down so she can slide her jeans on panties down her legs before lifting her back up again.

She hears the zipper of his black jeans being lowered and then his cock is pressing against her. She moans against her lips and thrusts her hips slightly, her wetness sliding pleasurably against his hardness.

He reaches between them to grasp his cock and then he lets her slowly slide down onto it. When he begins to move inside her, her head falls back and smacks into the wall. It doesn't even bother her, though, because her entire focus is on herself and Damon.

When she can feel herself on the precipice of her orgasm, one of Damon's hands snakes between them to flick at her sensitive clit, sending her hurtling over the edge.

She's still wrapped around him when she finally comes back to herself. She realizes that he's still completely clothed and decides that something needs to be done about it.

"You know, I think you can afford to lose a bit of clothing," Bonnie says, reaching to pull his shirt off.

He chuckles and sets her down on shaky legs so that she can finish lifting the shirt over his head. It's tossed it into the abyss where her clothing had disappeared. She bites her lower lip as he slides his dark jeans down and isn't the least surprised that he'd been going commando.

As she traces the ridges of his abs (she's quite a big fan of them), he tilts her chin up to press his lips against hers. She feels herself being lifted up by him again and when her lips break away from his, she sees that he's moving to the bed.

He takes a seat on the edge of her bed and she groans as he draws her down onto him, straddling his lap. This position is different from anything she's tried before. He feels deeper inside of her and she's pretty sure he's hitting all sorts of spots that have never been hit before.

This new position is a lot more strenuous, though. As she rides him, she can feel her thighs burning and she knows that she wouldn't be able to see this to completion on her own.

"Damon," she murmurs. Even though she doesn't finish her sentence, he picks up on her cue and grips her hips tightly, drawing her down onto his cock.

She can feel the familiar tightening in her belly and when she finally explodes, she's sure that it's her best orgasm yet.

She slowly comes down from her high, sweat cooling on her body and her face buried in the crook of his neck and shoulder. When she lifts her face to look at him, she sees that his fangs have come out. She reaches out a shaky hand to trace the prominent veins under his blood-shot eyes.

The one and only time he's ever bitten her had been full of nothing but pain and confusion, but she can't help but wonder if it could be different. She quickly pushes the thought of it out of her head, though.

Instead, she leans forward and presses a sloppy kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"I guess a change of rules is in order since this obviously isn't going to be a one-time thing anymore," she comments breathlessly, her lips brushing against his skin.

He chuckles and presses his lips against hers.


	3. Chapter 3

She doesn't expect Damon to still be there when he wakes up in the morning, but he is.

It's stupid and cliché, but he looks so different in his sleep. He looks relaxed with his mouth curved upwards slightly with no sign of his usual half-smirk.

"You know, staring is pretty damn creepy," he says.

"I'm not staring," Bonnie replies with a snort.

"Sure, you're not," he says with a wry grin, cracking his eyes open. "Not that I'd blame you if you were. I mean, I am gorgeous."

"Yeah, I'm just gonna get up and go take a shower because this bed is not big enough for me, you, and your ginormous ego." She slides out of the bed, taking the sheet with her.

"A shower sounds good," Damon says, getting up. He doesn't even try to cover up his nakedness and Bonnie tries to keep herself from staring.

"Yeah, when I said that I meant  _alone,_ " she says, purposefully keeping her eyes trained on a spot just next to his head.

"Now that's no fun," he replies, pouting.

"The point of a shower is to get clean," Bonnie tells him. "And I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen if you're in there with me."

"That's the fun of it," he says, standing up and approaching. She makes a point to keep her eyes trained on his face, willing the heat rising in her face to die away.

He easily pulls the sheet out of her hands and before she can even yell at him or feel embarrassed, he's hauling her over his shoulder and heading towards the bathroom.

"Seriously?!" She laughs a little bit despite herself.

It takes her twice as long to shower since he… _disctracts_ her. He was right, though. It's fun.

* * *

"You never did tell me what those new rules of yours were," Damon says when they're finally out of the shower and in the kitchen.

He places a plate of pancakes and eggs down in front of her. He had made a little vampire face on the top pancake with blueberries and whipped cream, which was so… _Damon_ of him.

She'd only expected him to take off after their shower, but instead he had gone right downstairs with her, began rifling through her kitchen, and asked her how she liked her eggs.

"Yeah, well it was kind of hard to form any coherent thoughts last night when you were…uh…y'know…" She could feel her face heating up just thinking about it.

"You mean when I spent the rest of the night eating you out and making you feel better than you have in your entire life?" He makes a show of licking his lips.

She squirms in her seat, feeling her skin get even hotter.

"Uh, yeah," Bonnie replies, she quickly shoves some eggs in her mouth. It's not that she's embarrassed about what they did…it's just that it's all so new for her.

"Uhm, anyway," she continues, stopping to clear her throat. "I don't think the rules need to be all that different from last time. I mean, obviously this is more than a one-time thing, but…"

She stops herself. God, why does she sound so much like a bumbling idiot right now. She shakes her head and squares her shoulders.

"Okay, rule one: This doesn't get out to anyone. Ever."

"Yeah, there's a little snag with that," Damon replies. "Stefan knows."

"What?! You told Stefan?!"

"No, I didn't tell him. He just always seems to know everything that everyone does all the time. It's kind of creepy, actually."

Bonnie groans and pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"He's not going to tell anyone," Damon assures her.

"Nope, but I'll never be able to face him ever again."

"Eh, who needs to see that big forehead brooding at you all the time, anyway?"

Bonnie just gives him a look.

"Okay, well I guess rule number one is that this doesn't get out to anybody  _else,_ ever."

Damon hums noncommittally as he turns to flip a pancake.

"Rule two: As longs as we're doing this, we don't sleep with other people. If either of us wants to sleep with someone else or whatever, then we just tell each other and this ends."

"You do realize that I don't carry STDs, right?"

"Yeah, but the idea of you having sex with me repeatedly when you've  _just_  had sex with another woman is kind of gross…plus, some of the women you have a tendency to go for can be frightening, and I don't need someone knocking on my door, ready to scratch my eyes out."

He actually laughs at that.

"Then, of course, there's the old rules: No biting or leaving marks, etcetera, etcetera."

"You're so demanding," he says. He scoops a pancake on to his plate, makes another vampire face on it, and sits down across from her.

"I also think we should have an escape clause," she tells him, ignoring his comment.

"An escape clause?"

"Mmhmm. If for any reason one of us wants to put this to stop, we do; no questions asked."

"A get out of jail card; nice."

"So we have a deal?"

"Mmhmm. And I know just how to seal it."

Bonnie snorts. "Yeah, no. This morning in the shower was more than enough. Besides, I'd like to actually eat breakfast. Speaking of," she picks up the plate and tilts it slightly in his direction so the vampire face is looking back at him, "Really?"

He shoves some eggs in his mouth and smirks while chewing. Bonnie smiles back at him despite herself.

* * *

Their relationship doesn't change as much as she thought it would. They drink, they argue over various things. The only difference is now they have sex.

Okay, so maybe that was a big difference. But, still, she's glad that it hasn't ruined their tentative friendship. Even if she'd never admit it aloud, there's just certain things that Damon understood, which no one else did and she'd actually miss him, despite herself.

And even though it took her weeks of awkwardness to get over Stefan knowing, she does. As long as no one else found out, she'd be good.

Really, though, life actually seems pretty decent for once. There was no big looming threat, she didn't wake up every morning wondering if today would be the day she or someone she loved would die. Her biggest concerns at the moment was making sure that she got into a decent college (which, was slightly easier said than done since her grades had slipped in the past year and a half, but she's fully confident she could find a way to bring them back up).

Despite it being Friday night, she's currently in her room studying for a pre-calculus exam she had on Monday. While she's always done decently enough in math, she's never been exactly a whiz at it and this test was definitely going to be a doozy.

"This is what you're doing with your Friday night?" Damon asks from the window.

She shrieks and inadvertently sends him flying down to the ground outside with her magic.

"Really?" Damon asks, coming back up through the window.

"Well, what'd you expect, coming through my window like a creep? Next time, ring the damn doorbell or something! It's not like my dad is ever home," Bonnie snaps, holding a hand over her rapidly beating heart.

Damon rolls his eyes before hauling himself into her bedroom.

"Seriously, though, it's Friday night and you're spending it studying…" He peers over her textbook and notes, " _Math?"_

"I have a test Monday and I'm trying to give my grades a bit of an overhaul so I can get into a decent college."

"I could just compel them to let you in," he says, sitting down on her bed across from her.

She gives him a look.

"Fine, your loss," he replies with a shrug. "Although, I definitely think there're more entertaining things we could be doing right now," he says, swiping her study materials off the bed and onto the floor before pulling her closer to him. She laughs as he presses his lips to hers.

She's not always such a pushover when Damon is around, but, really, who would want to study for pre-calculus exam when given her alternative?

"I'm so going to regret this when I take my exam on Monday," Bonnie mutters in between kisses as she works on undoing the buttons on Damon's shirt.

He just smirks against her lips and snakes his hands up her shirt, his cool skin brushing the warmer skin of her back.

They separate so he can shrug his shirt off and he she pulls her own top over her head. The rest of the clothes come off in a quick blur between gasps and kisses.

She lies back on her bed, pulling him down with her. Damon's lips move from hers, down her neck and then to her breast. She gasps and tangles her fingers in his hair as he pays homage to the fleshy globes.

His lips trail down the smooth skin of her flat tummy and just as he settles between her legs, they're interrupted.

"Oh. My.  _God,"_ Caroline screeches.


	4. Chapter 4

His lips trail down the smooth skin of her flat tummy and just as he settles between her legs, they're interrupted.

"Oh. My.  _God,"_ Caroline screeches.

Bonnie freezes, her mouth dropping open before letting out her own, "Oh, God."

"And…here we go," Damon mutters, dropping his head down against her thigh.

"Wha…I…wha…" Caroline can't even get a coherent sentence out.

"Uhm, I don't suppose I could lie and tell you that this isn't what it looks like, can I?"

"What—ho…I…" Apparently, words still haven't found their way back to Caroline.

"Okay, uhm, no offense, Caroline, but you're a vampire with super hearing…couldn't you tell I was, uh, busy?" Bonnie squeaks. "Or better, yet," she continues, glaring down at Damon, "Why didn't you hear her in the house?"

"I was a little busy at the moment," Damon replies.

"Oh, for the love of God, will you just put some pants on, Damon?!" Caroline shrieks, finally finding some words. "Your ass is so white it's blinding me!"

Bonnie groans and grabs her pillow and throws it over her face.

_I think smothering myself would be easier than dealing with this clusterfuck._

"Caroline, could you just get out so we can please get dressed?" Bonnie groans, her voice muffled by the pillow.

"Fine. But no funny business! And I'll be waiting downstairs for a  _full_ explanation, Bonnie Sheila Bennett!" She snaps, wagging a finger at them before backing out of the room.

"So, now that she's gone…" Damon waggles his eyebrows suggestively.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Bonnie replies, taking the pillow covering her face and smacking him with it.

* * *

"So…" Bonnie trails off as she joins a pacing Caroline in the kitchen. Damon had already left via her bedroom window.

"What the hell was that?!" Caroline exclaims, spinning around to face her.

"Uhm…well, me and Damon have kind of been, well, you almost saw, so…" Bonnie stutters lamely.

"Wait, you guys have been…this isn't a one-time thing? Wh…since when?" The blonde stammers.

"Uh, well, just for a couple of weeks…"

"Weeks?!"

"Look, we both agreed that we never wanted to say anything because we knew we'd get this sort of reaction and we didn't want things to get that messy," Bonnie tries to explain.

"Well, yeah, because it's you and Damon!" Caroline interjects.

"But, it's not like we're in a relationship or anything." Bonnie finishes, ignoring Caroline's interruption.

"Okay, look," Caroline says, taking a seat at the kitchen table across from Bonnie, obviously trying to calm herself down. "So, putting aside the fact that calling Damon Satan would be an insult to Satan and that he's not fit enough to lick your boots, let alone your—"

"Caroline!" Bonnie could feel her face heat.

" _Anyway,_ putting all that aside, are you really sure you know what you're doing?" Caroline continues, looking at Bonnie concernedly. "I mean, don't get me wrong: there's absolutely nothing wrong with casual sex…but it's not for everyone. You always said that you waited to lose your virginity because you wanted to make sure you were in love and had a deep connection, so…I know, I know, I can't really tell you what to do—even though I  _really_  kinda want to—but I don't want to see you get hurt, either."

"I know," Bonnie says with a small smile. "And trust me, I've been fully aware of what I've gotten into this entire time. And right now, believe it or not, I'm very happy with it."

"So…does Elena know?"

Bonnie groans and rubs her forehead. "Yeah, if I have my way, you and Stefan are the only ones that'll ever know. Ever."

"Wait, Stefan knew before me?!"

Bonnie drops her head down onto the table and tries to steel herself for the bubbling rant sure to come.

* * *

"So, how'd things go with Blondie?" Damon asks when Bonnie comes over to the Salvatore boardinghouse the next night.

"It was awkward as hell, and she thinks I'm making a big mistake,  _and_  she's pissed that Stefan knew before her, but she won't tell anyone."

He nods and then gets up and pours each of them a drink.

"So do you?" Damon asks when he hands her the glass.

"Do I what?" she replies, furrowing her brow before taking a sip.

"Think you're making a big mistake?"

"Would I be here if I was?"

He gives her one of those small little half-smiles before leaning in to kiss her, his tongue entangling with hers.

"Wait, what about Stefan and Elena? Are they coming back soon?" Bonnie gasps out as Damon's lips trail down her neck.

"They've been spending more time at Elena's house than anything lately," he murmurs into her collar bone.

Bonnie wonders if that's Stefan's doing since he knows what's been going on.

"Besides, I'll be able to hear them if they start coming up the driveway."

"Yeah, like you heard Caroline last night?" She replies sardonically before sighing as Damon nips softly at her collarbone.

She then lets any other thoughts drift out of her head as his cool hands slip under her t-shirt, dancing along the skin of her flat tummy.

She brings her lips to Damon's, giving him a chaste kiss before moving to the corner of his mouth and then down his neck, her tongue darting occasionally darting to taste his skin.

He groans before grabbing onto her tightly and standing up. Bonnie instinctively wraps her legs around his waist before he speeds them up to his bedroom.

When they reach his room, he carefully let's her back down onto the floor and works at removing her clothes, paying her breasts the homage they deserve.

She carefully unbuttons his shirt, laying soft kisses on his chest and squeezing his nipples a little just to get a reaction out of him.

His eyes widen a little bit in surprise as she drops down on her knees and reaches for the belt of his pants and releases his erection.

She had done this before on Jeremy and she didn't mind it even though it had felt incredibly awkward at first and unsure if she would even get it right.

Either way, she finds herself wanting to do this for Damon, wanting to make him feel as good as she felt all those times he went down on her (although, she doubts she'd be able to achieve that level of skill within her lifetime).

She looks up at him with those big green eyes of hers before she grins and darts her tongue out for an experimental taste of the pre-cum that was currently dripping out of the head of his hardened erection. She then swirls her tongue around the head for a bit before taking him into her mouth.

She can't help but feel a small sense of pride as he lets out a curse and grips her hair in obvious pleasure. She begins to bob her head up and down, moving at a steady pace. She then takes a hand to wrap around the parts of him that she is unable to take in her mouth.

"Oh, Jesus fuck," he groans as she takes down as much of him as she can and begins to suck. Never in a million years would he have ever imagined that Bonnie Bennett could give such good head that made him want to bust a nut in less than five minutes flat.

He carefully pulls her off of him, not wanting to cum just yet.

"My turn," he tells her upon seeing her questioning look.

He then tosses her up onto the bed, causing her to bounce a few times with a breathy laugh. He gives her little chance to orient herself before he's always in between her legs, eagerly lapping up her essence.

When she comes moaning and crying out his name, he doesn't give her a chance to come down before he flips her on her stomach, lifts her hips up, and begins pumping into her.

"Oh, God," she moans, clutching at the sheets for dear life.

Right when he knows she's on the cusp of orgasm, he flips her on her back and continues his ministrations so that he could see her face when she hit her peak.

When she finally does, her face twists in pleasure and her full lips form a little o and she breathlessly calls out his name. His orgasm shortly follows hers.

She comes down from her high, sweat cooling on her body and tucks her head into the hollow of Damon's neck before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

"It's been way too long since we've done this," Elena says, dropping the bag of Chinese food onto the island in Bonnie's kitchen a few nights later. She always pulls out several bottles of good wine that she had lifted from the Salvatore residence.

Bonnie, Elena, and Caroline decided they were long overdue for a girl's night in.

"It has been," Bonnie agrees as she happily begins to dig through the bag in search of her sweet and sour chicken.

"You seem more chipper than usual. You've been seeing a new guy or something?" Elena teases with a grin as she begins pouring the wine.

"Nope. Our little Bon Bon has just been getting some nice, wild crazy sex," Caroline says.

_You've got to be kidding me,_ Bonnie thinks, staring at Caroline with wide eyes.

Caroline automatically cringes. She didn't mean for that to actually come out, but her mouth has a tendency to be several light years in front of her brain.

"Really? With who?" Elena asks, intrigued.

"His name is not important. It's not a real relationship or anything. Just sex," Bonnie says awkwardly.

Caroline clears her throat looking pointedly at Bonnie before quickly becoming very interested in her food upon seeing Bonnie glaring at her.

"Really, what's the big deal?" Elena asks, looking back and forth at Caroline and Bonnie, clearly confused.

"There is no big deal. Caroline just can't wrap her head around the fact that I'm getting some in a no-strings-attached relationship," Bonnie explains dryly.

"Well, I mean, it is kind of strange for you and it's a little weird that you don't even want to tell me the guy's name…wait, is it Jeremy?"

Caroline begins gracelessly choking on her orange chicken.

Elena's face scrunches up a bit. "'Cause I mean, that's cool and all, but I really don't wanna hear about my little brother having…"

"It's not Jeremy, I swear. Can we please just change the subject?"

"Okay," Elena says with a little shrug, taking pity on her poor, obviously uncomfortable friend.

"So…who wants to watch  _The Notebook?_ Or maybe even  _The Great Gatsby?_ " Bonnie asks.

"Or how about  _Friends with Benefits?_ " Caroline asks with a grin, pulling the movie in question out of her bag and waving it around for emphasis.

_You're dead to me,_ Bonnie thinks, glaring at Caroline as Elena agrees with the blonde's movie choice.

They move into the living room and she places her food down on the living room coffee table and moves to pop the movie in before sitting back down and clutching her food for dear life.

_It's gonna be a long night._


	5. Chapter 5

Bonnie decides that a change of pace was necessary. At least that's what she tells herself when some guy at school decides it'd be a good idea to throw a kegger when his parents are out of town.

She used to go to these sorts of parties all the time before she found out she was a witch and started getting entangled in serious fights for her life. Not that she had been one of those people that'd be get so drunk they'd dance on the dining room table, throw up in a house plant, and pass out in someone's bedroom or anything, but she had been fun.

"Want some bad beer?" Jeremy Gilbert asks, offering her a red solo cup.

They never really talk to each other a whole lot, neither knowing really what to say to each other.

"Thanks," Bonnie says, taking the aforementioned red cup. "What are you doing here? I thought the whole party scene wasn't your thing?"

"I thought it wasn't yours either," he replies with a grin. "But its Mystic Falls, so what else is there to do?"

"Touché." She takes a sip of the beer and tries not to grimace at it.

"Look, this probably isn't the  _best_ time to be doing this, but can we talk? Somewhere quieter, I mean?" Jeremy asks with a small, hopeful smile.

"Uh, okay." Bonnie leaves her cup on a table with no intentions of coming back from it. Free or no, that beer was not worth keeping.

She follows Jeremy outside onto the front porch where it's a  _little_ quieter…minus the couple making out on the lawn that look like they're about to start having sex in full view of the public any moment.

"Uh, yeah, like I said, not the best time to be doing this, but we never really see each other a whole lot and you always seem so busy, so…" He trails off and clears his throat. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Anna, Vicki, all of it," Jeremy replies.

Bonnie's eyes widen. It's been months since that whole debacle and she's barely spoken to Jeremy since.

"Uhm, no offence or anything, but why now? I mean, that's way in the past, so…"

"Because I never apologized and you deserve an apology. You deserved better than that and I won't make excuses, but I am sorry and I made a huge mistake.

As she watches him leave, she's left with the funniest feeling in her stomach and she doesn't quite know how to describe it.

* * *

The following Monday, Caroline realizes that prom is about two and a half months away and she starts freaking out with her usual vigor.

"Dresses," Caroline says at lunch, in between crunching bites of her salad, "We need to go dress shopping. Actually, we should have gone dress shopping like six months ago. Because you two," She points at Tyler and Stefan, "Need to coordinate your tux colors with us," She points at herself and Elena. "God, we are so behind."

"I don't know if I'm going to prom," Bonnie says nonchalantly.

It's like everything else comes to a screeching halt.

"What do you mean you're not going to prom?!" Caroline all but screeches.

"Well, I don't know," Bonnie replies with a shrug. "I'm just not feeling the whole prom thing."

"What does that even mean?" Caroline asks with narrowed eyes.

"Look, if you don't wanna go, we obviously can't make you," Elena says, a little more understanding than Caroline. "But is everything okay? Is it something to do with this guy you've been seeing? Because, you should totally ask him to prom. We all want to meet him."

_Oh for the love of…_

"Look, it's nothing. I just…you know what? Never mind," Bonnie mutters standing up and walking away, ignoring Elena calling after her.

"Hey, everything okay?" Jeremy asks Bonnie later that afternoon when he spots her at  _the Grille._ "Elena said that you were kind of upset today at lunch."

"Uh, not exactly," Bonnie says with a shrug, looking up from her history textbook. "I just said that I wasn't sure if I wanted to bother with prom and…I don't know. I guess I'm stuck in a weird funk or something."

It's the truth. She can't quite place her finger on it, but something keeps nagging at her in the back of her mind and she's not sure what and she's a little afraid to dig any deeper.

"Anything I can do to help?" He offers.

"Nah. It's fine. I'll be fine. It's nothing to worry about, I swear."

Jeremy raises his eyebrows.

"Okay, so I know I don't have the best track record about being honest when I'm not okay," Bonnie says with a small laugh upon Jeremy's look. "But, I swear, it's not like a life or death matter or anything horribly that serious."

"Anyway, what about you? I heard something about Mrs. Conrad linking your work so much in Art that she's trying arrange for you have an exhibition at the next Founder's event."

"Yeah," Jeremy replies with a big smile. "Even though I think it's kind of early since most people don't start applying for college till fall of their senior year, she thinks that if I start applying to some art colleges now, I have a good chance at getting a decent scholarship to one of the more fancy big-name art schools."

"That's good. I'm really happy for you."

"Actually, I was hoping to see you again soon," he reaches into his bag to pull a piece of paper out. "I had drawn this back when we were still together and Mrs. Conrad wanted to use it in the exhibition, but I thought it might be too awkward and I didn't want to upset you…"

It's a sketch of her. An amazingly well-detailed sketch of her. He even managed to capture the faint splash of freckles on her nose that were usually covered up with makeup.

"Wow…" She says softly.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"No," she says quickly. "It's nice. It's really, really nice. Uhm, if you want to use it, you can," she offers the sketch back to him.

"Keep it," he says with a smile.

Just like at the party, she's left with that funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that she can't describe.

* * *

 "Are you happy with this?" Bonnie asks softly as she lays next Damon in his bed a few days later.

"What?"

"I don't know. I mean, I know that you're you and all, but do you ever think about finding a real relationship?"

She doesn't know exactly where this comes from and she wishes that she could take those words and shove them back in her mouth.

"I'm content with what we have," Damon says. He sits up and leans his back against the headboard, the sheet slipping dangerously low on his hips and his icy blue eye gazing down on her. "Are you unhappy?"

She sits up and presses her lips against Damon, not caring that the sheet has half-slipped off of her.

"Not exactly."

It wasn't exactly a lie…she's not entirely sure what she wants right now.

* * *

 It finally hits her what it's all about—this weird funk that she's been in.

When Caroline had discovered what she and Damon were doing, she had mentioned that Bonnie is the type of person that wants deep, intimate connections.

And she's right.

Maybe it's dumb to be thinking about it when she's ready to leave for college in less than half a year, but it's something that nags at her brain.

She sees the way that Tyler and Caroline are and the way that Stefan and Elena are and now that she's struck up a tentative friendship with Jeremy once again and hangs out with him every once in a while, she can remember the way she had felt when they were together—and she wants that.

It's not that she's unhappy with Damon. Not by any means.

The sex was really,  _really_ good and they had a good friendship. But she wants more…not necessarily with Damon per se, but she wants a real relationship.

She had known that this time would come sooner or later and they had promised each other that if one of them wanted a real relationship, there was a no-strings attached escape clause.

But, still, she can't help the feeling of impending doom when Damon comes to her one night when she's alone.

"Damon?" Bonnie murmurs as his cool lips trail down her neck as they lie on her bed.

He hums noncommittally, but doesn't respond.

"I think I'm going to get back together with Jeremy."

Dead silence.


	6. Chapter 6

"Damon?" Bonnie murmurs as his cool lips trail down her neck as they lie on her bed.

He hums noncommittally, but doesn't respond.

"I think I'm going to get back together with Jeremy."

Dead silence.

"What?"

"I think I'm going to get back together with Jeremy," Bonnie says. She didn't think it was possible, but it came out even quieter than it had the first time.

"You can't be serious," Damon says with a scoff as he pushes himself off the bed, agitatedly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bonnie asks, a little confused. She sits up and quickly straightens her pajamas out.

"You're seriously going to get back together with  _Jeremy Gilbert?_ "

She hadn't been expecting the most pleased response. She had mostly been expecting him to shrug it off, make some cheeky comment about how no one would ever measure up to him in bed, and then leave to go pick up some other woman at a bar. Instead…it was like he was angry.

"Why are you so angry at me?"

"Why do you want to get back with Jeremy?"

"I don't owe you an explanation!" Bonnie snaps, feeling herself become defensive. "We agreed that what we had was no strings attached and that if we wanted to see other people that was fine. So, again, why are you so angry at me?!"

"Why are you so insistent on getting back together with a  _boy_  who cheated on you with a  _ghost_?"

Okay, that actually kind of hurt.

"As opposed to what?" Bonnie finds herself yelling, willing the tears that were causing pinpricks in her eyes to not actually fall. "As opposed to getting a regular pity fuck from a homicidal vampire that's in love with my best friend?"

Dead silence again.

Damon's lips pressed into a thin line and without a word, he was out the window and completely gone, leaving Bonnie alone.

And before Bonnie could do anything, the tears started spilling over.

Damon had known that Bonnie was going to call it quits soon. He had known it as soon as she asked if he ever thought of finding a real relationship. It had just been a matter of time.

What  _has_ blindsided him, though, is that she wants get back with  _Jeremy Gilbert_ of all people.

Now,  _that_ one had made no sense to him at all.

And he'd never admit it aloud, but it actually did kind of upset him that she thought she was just an easy fuck for him.

Moving beyond the physical relationship that they had developed, he thought that they'd actually had a pretty decent friendship going—and that wasn't something he got to say a lot. Or, really, ever. To hear her simply reduce it to something like that…

It was actually kind of hurtful.

But, whatever, he should have known that it was going to crash and burn sooner or later. It was time to move on and that's that.

So, he makes his way to a bar just a little ways outside of Mystic Falls. And He buys a pretty redhead some drinks, charms her into his bed, feeds off her, and then sends her on her merry little way.

It's business as usual. And he's fine with that.

Really, he is.

* * *

It's been about a week and she hasn't seen the slightest trace of Damon and she knows that's because he's going out of his way to avoid her. Part of her wants to seek him out and at least make an attempt to try and straighten things out, but she's sure that would blow up in her face.

Things with Jeremy weren't so bad.

He's really sweet to her just like he was the first time they gave their relationship a try. And she's not exactly unhappy…but she's not as entirely content as she thought she would be.

 _It's okay, though,_ she keeps telling herself.  _You just started up your relationship again and you got some trust issues to work through._

"Okay," Caroline says, barging into her room bright and early on a Saturday morning while Bonnie was still attempting to sleep. "So I really need an explanation as to what the hell is going on in your life."

"You're going to have to be a little more specific, Care," Bonnie mumbles into her pillow, still half-asleep.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Bonnie Bennett!" Caroline flops down onto the opposite side of the bed.

With a sigh, Bonnie heaves herself up into a sitting position, running a hand through her tangled hair.

"What do you expect me to tell you? I had a casual fling with Damon for a while and decided that I wanted a real relationship. What is there to explain?"

"Well, according to Elena and Stefan, apparently Damon is being more of a cranky, womanizing asshole than usual, so something tells me that your parting with Damon wasn't exactly on friendly terms," Caroline replies without missing a beat.

"Well, you know how Damon is," Bonnie replies dryly.

Caroline hums, picking imaginary lint off of Bonnie's comforter.

"Okay, whatever you're clearly dying to say, just come out and say it because I know you're about to explode," Bonnie says, rolling her eyes.

"Okay, so I want to ask you something, but I feel like you might get mad or offended and I don't want to make you mad, but—"

"Caroline."

"Alright, so I get you wanting to have a real relationship. Really, I do. And, let's be real, you were never gonna have that with Damon because, well, Damon, but…" Caroline trails off.

"But?"

"Are you with Jeremy because you really want to be? Or is he just a safer option because you're too afraid to see who else is out there?"

"Wow."

"Yeah, I knew that was going to make you mad, but…"

"No," Bonnie replies. "I'm not mad." Pause. "I'm not unhappy with Jeremy. He's good to me."

"But…?"

"I don't know," Bonnie answers with a small shrug. "That's it. He's good to me and I'm not unhappy."

"Okay, so you're not  _un_ happy, but are you  _happy_?"

Bonnie doesn't reply.

* * *

So, she's clearly a glutton for punishment otherwise she wouldn't be standing in front of the Salvatore boardinghouse, wondering whether she dared to go in or not.

With a sigh and squaring her shoulders, she reaches out and raps the knocker against the massive door.

"Uh, hey," she says when Damon opens the door. "I just—I haven't seen you in a while and know you're avoiding me, but…"

"I'm not avoiding you," Damon replies flatly.

"Really? So—"

"I've just been busy giving other women out there pity fucks," he continues as if he hasn't even heard her. And then, he slams the door in Bonnie's face.

"So…" Stefan says after the door slams shut.

"If you start, I'm going to stake myself," Damon replies before disappearing upstairs.

Stefan sighs.

Honestly, he had expected that whatever Bonnie and Damon had wouldn't end well. What he  _hadn't_ expected was that Damon had noticeably been more upbeat—well, for Damon, anyway—when he and Bonnie were...well, uh, sort-of-together.

So maybe it's not his place to get involved or say anything…but he hopes that Bonnie and Damon could at least repair their friendship.


	7. Chapter 7

"Get up and take a shower," Stefan says as he barges into Damon's room without preamble.

"Shut up or I'll snap your neck," Damon mutters. He turns over, smashing his face further into the pillow. Technically, he didn't need as much sleep as a human did, but that didn't mean that he liked being woken up by a brooding forehead.

Stefan crosses is arms over his chest. "Nope. You're driving everyone else crazy with your old antics, so you are going to get up, shower, get dressed, and go deal with whatever happened between you and Bonnie. Or at the very least take five minutes to pull your head out of your ass."

"There's nothing to deal with," Damon responds.

"Uh-huh. Is that why every girl you've been bringing home lately shares a passing resemblance to her? Or why you went out of your way to say something that you know would be hurtful to her? It's classic Damon and, frankly, a more than a little pathetic."

That's enough to get Damon up and slamming his younger brother into a wall.

"Shut up!" He growls.

"Here's the thing," Stefan continues, ignoring Damon's warning. "You can say you don't care all you want, but your actions speak very differently."

Damon's grip tightens around Stefan's throat.

"You're upset that she believes you were just using her for gratification. But did you ever give her a reason to believe otherwise? Whether you like it or not, you have a history."

Damon lets go of Stefan and disappears into the bathroom without a word.

* * *

"Oh, I'm sorry, aren't you busy giving other women out there pity fucks?" Were the first words out of Bonnie's mouth before she slams the door in Damon's face.

He stands there, blinking at the closed door and scowling. Okay, so he'd pretty much expected that from her, but c'mon, couldn't anything ever be easy?

"Okay, so I might have deserved that one," Damon says, opening the door and cautiously entering the house. He takes the fact that he doesn't immediately burst into flames as a good sign.

He finds Bonnie in the kitchen, clanging around as she takes dishes out of the dishwasher and places them back where they belong.

She then grabs a bottle of bourbon and begins pouring a glass for herself. It's not the super fancy, overpriced stuff that Damon buys, but it still does the trick.

"Uh-oh, breaking into daddy's liquor supply. This is serious."

"If you're going to act like this is all a big joke then, then don't let the door hit your ass on the way out," Bonnie snaps, slamming the bottle back down on the counter.

"It  _might_ have come to my attention that  _maybe_ I was  _possibly_ too harsh when you came to talk the other night."

She stands there, not giving an inch.

"And then it  _might_ have come to my attention that  _maybe_ I  _possibly,_ even though we were supposed to be drinking buddies or friends or whatever the hell you wanna call it, I  _apparently_ have a history that isn't so easily forgettable."

She stands there with the same look on her face before she sighs and pours him a drink too.

"That's the biggest, crappiest non-apology I've ever heard. And considering that's all you ever give me, that's saying  _a lot,"_  she tells him with a small scoff.

"Fine. I'm sorry. I should have handled things better. My mouth has a tendency to say a lot of things," he replies.

"The more I think about it I should have known better," she mutters.

He looks at her questioningly.

"Look, it's not that the sex wasn't good or that I didn't enjoy it for the most part. It's just that…I know me and I know how I feel when it comes to relationships and sex. I mean, there's a reason why I kept hanging onto my virginity until I was sure I was in love and there's a reason why, until you, there hadn't been anyone else. To me, sex involves giving away a part of yourself, a part that should be given to someone that I love. And I know not everyone sees it that way…I know you don't and I get that and that's fine, but that's not me. So I don't know what I thought would happen." She looks down at her fingers that were nervously tapping against her glass.

"So what now?" He asks.

"I don't know," she sighs before looking up to meet his eyes. "Maybe we try being friends again?"

_Friends._

For some reason, the idea doesn't sit quite right with him, but he shoves it down, not wanting to think about it further or to try and pinpoint the reason why.

"So, what'd Stefan do to get you to come over here? Threatened to spike your bourbon with vervain repeatedly until you met his demands?"

"What makes you think Stefan did anything? I would have come here eventually," he says somewhat defensively.

Bonnie snorts. "Yeah, except it would either have been a month since we last spoken to each other or you would have needed something from me."

Damon doesn't respond.

"Sorry," she says, tucking a dark curl behind her ear. "I'm doing it again…the whole judgy, assuming thing."

He smirks slightly before his face goes more serious.

"Just for the record, though, it was never a pity fuck. And I've been over Elena for a long time," he tells her more seriously.

"Since when? A-about the whole, Elena thing, I mean," she asks, her gaze shooting up from her bourbon to him.

"I can't pull out an exact date," he responds dryly. "But I decided that it was time to let go. Also for the record? I still stand by my thoughts about you and Jeremy."

Bonnie sighs. "Please, don't ruin this already."

* * *

God, she's been fucking up things a lot lately and apparently she wasn't going to slow her roll anytime soon.

She's going to end things with Jeremy. Whatever she thought she would get out of the relationship, she thought wrong and she wasn't being fair to Jeremy or herself.

She had tried to make things work out in her head and her heart, but they just weren't. She had been with Jeremy for about a month and things actually hadn't been that different than it was when their relationship had been in its heyday. But still, it just does feel… _right._

And between Caroline  _and_ Damon's not-so-subtle hints, she knew that something had to give.

"Earth to Bonnie," Jeremy says, waving a hand in front of her face and bringing her attention back. "What's got you a million miles away?"

They had decided to hole up in her home tonight with a couple movies, pizza, and a bottle of wine. She had been spacing out the entire time.

"I've been thinking," she says quietly, her squeezing in dread a little bit. "About you and me."

"Yeah?"

"I think we should break up," she says. She didn't mean to exactly blurt it out like that, but…beating around the bush would have been worse. Maybe it is better to do it quick, just like a Band-Aid.

"What?"

"I'm sorry. It's not you, it's me. And I know, I know that is the lamest,  _stupidest_ thing to say, but it's true. I just…" she struggles to find the words. "I'm not unhappy, but…I'm not exactly shooting off fireworks either, you know?"

"It has to do with Damon, doesn't it?" Jeremy asks, making Bonnie freeze.

"Wh—ho—"

"I overheard you and Caroline talking about it once," he answers. "And I'm not exactly as obtuse as everyone seems to think. I know you had been friends for some reason and that you weren't talking to each other for a while." Pause. "I couldn't believe it first when I overheard you and Caroline, but then I figured that whatever had happened was clearly over now, so it wasn't anything to worry about, even if I will never understand what you were thinking, but…you know you're never going to have what you want with him, right? He'll use you for a while and then just move on to the next girl."

"It's not about him. It's about  _me,"_ Bonnie insists firmly, but softly. "The thing is…I don't have a clue what I want! And until I figure it out, it's not fair to you or me to continue on like this."

"I think you're making a mistake."

"Maybe I am. I don't know. But either way, it's  _my_ mistake," Bonnie replies softly. "But I am really sorry for leading you on and hurting you."

He doesn't respond. He just gets up and leaves. She jumps when the door slams behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

Bonnie and Caroline were prepping for a girl's night at Bonnie's house and waiting for Elena when said brunette came barreling into the house.

"Whoa, you seem angry tonight," Bonnie says as Elena storms into the kitchen.

"Yeah, because Jeremy told me that the reason you broke up was because the guy that you've been hooking up with for these past few months was  _Damon._ "

"Oh, boy," Caroline says, grabbing a bottle of wine and the corkscrew of the counter.

"I can't believe you, Bonnie!"

"What?" Bonnie asks, her eyebrows furrowing.

"How could you lie about who you were with?!"

"First, I didn't lie. I just never said  _who_ I'd been sleeping with." Okay, so that wasn't exactly a whole lot better than lying, but still… "Second, everybody doesn't need to know every little thing I do!"

"Caroline and Stefan knew!"

"I didn't tell them! They found out on their own!"

"How could  _you_  not tell me?" Elena asks, turning her furious gaze on Caroline.

"Hey, it wasn't my news to tell…and I only found out by accident," Caroline says, raising her hands defensively. "Trust me: I could have gone the rest of eternity without seeing Damon's pasty white ass again!"

Awkward pause.

"Okay, but  _Damon_?! How could you?!" Elena snaps, turning back to Bonnie.

"What does it matter to you?" Bonnie asks. "It's not like me and Damon cheated on you or something, so why are you making it sound like that?"

Bonnie didn't think it was possible, but Elena's face got even redder.

"I'm not. I just can't believe you did this to Jeremy!" Elena splutters unconvincingly.

"I ended things with Damon before I got back together with Jeremy. And breaking up with Jeremy was  _my_ decision that I felt was best for  _me._ And, yeah, I do feel guilty because I did lead him on, but that's  _me. It's all on me._ It had nothing to do with Damon or what I  _had_ —keyword  _had—_ with Damon _._  So…?"

Elena looks back and forth between both Bonnie and Caroline before she whips around and storms out of the house. Both Caroline and Bonnie flinch as the front door slams loudly.

"Look, don't worry too much about Elena. I think she feels bad because Jeremy's her brother, y'know?" Caroline says softly.

" _Well, that and because she's a little jealous since Damon's life obviously no longer revolves around her,"_ is what went unspoken between the two of them.

"She'll get over it eventually," Caroline continues.

"I hope so," Bonnie says with a sigh. "I do feel a little guilty, though. Maybe I should have just been straight up and honest with everyone from the start or maybe if I had been straight up and honest with  _myself_ from the start…"

"Look, if there's one thing I know," Caroline says, pouring two glasses of wine and sliding one over to Bonnie, "There's no point in always thinking thorough the would haves and the could haves and all that stuff because you can't go back and change it. You can only move forward."

Bonnie gives her a small smile.

"Now," Caroline says with a grin. "Let's try to salvage whatever's left of the night, okay?"

When Caroline leaves for the night, Bonnie decides to give Damon a call. She's sure he's probably already been hit by Hurricane Elena, but just in case, he probably deserves a warning.

* * *

"So, has Hurricane Elena hit yet?" Bonnie asks when he picks up the phone.

"Oh, yeah. Been here, screamed at me, bitched Stefan out, and left all huffy."

Bonnie sighs. She feels so bad for Stefan. He definitely did not deserve Elena's anger.

"Tell Stefan I say sorry," she says, grimacing.

"Well, I figure there's only one thing left to do," Damon informs here.

_Oh, boy._

"Yeah?" she asks, skeptically.

"Leave town and lay low for a couple of days," he replies.

"Yeah, right," she scoffs, knowing there's no way he's serious about it.

"I'm serious about it."

_What the fuck._

"Damon, it's hardly that dramatic," Bonnie responds, grinning despite herself. "Besides, if we both went AWOL, Elena and Jeremy would probably assume that we're eloping."

"Who's being dramatic now?" Damon shoots back, his tone dry. "I'm planning on heading to New York for a few days to avoid Elena's screaming at me while lecturing Stefan about the importance of honesty. You could have some fun if you come with…you do remember what fun is, right?"

 _You'd be insane to agree,_ her mind screams at her.

"Okay, fine," Bonnie says reluctantly.

"Fantastic," Damon replies. She could practically see him rubbing his hands together in diabolical excitement. "I'll pick you up now."

"Wait, what? Now? As in…now?"

"Yeah, why wait?"

_Well, everyone's gonna officially think we've lost it now._

* * *

"You actually own this place?" Bonnie asks, eyes sweeping across the loft. It doesn't have anywhere the opulence of the old Salvatore boardinghouse, but it's still spacious and she finds something cozy about it.

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know," Bonnie replies with a shrug. "I guess I just have a hard time picturing you living anywhere but the boardinghouse."

"Yeah, well, here is your bedroom," Damon says, guiding her to an open door. "Mine is the one across."

Bonnie nods, dropping her back by the door.

"So, what now?" she asks. Given that it was the wee hours of the morning and she had yet to go to sleep and the five hour car ride should have been exhausting, Bonnie finds herself wired and eager to do something. She hardly ever gets the chance to go out of Mystic Falls.

"Well, let me introduce you to the New York nightlife," Damon says, guiding her towards the door.

"You're gonna get me into some sort of trouble, aren't you?" Bonnie asks, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Now, why would you ever think that?"

They end up in a nightclub where she drinks more tequila than she should. She has a good buzz going when a tall, blonde man comes up to her. He was definitely good looking, but from the way he kept looking her up and down, Bonnie had the feeling a douchebag looking to get in her pants because she was a little drunk.

"Wanna dance, beautiful?" He asks with a grin that she's sure he thinks is charming.

"No," Damon answers.

She gives him a sidelong glance before turning back to the guy.

"Sure," she says, taking is proffered hand. She had no intentions of actually doing anything more with the guy, but a little fun couldn't hurt.

She sees Damon glaring at the guy the entire time and she decides to not ask herself what the hell that's about.

The guy is a little handsy, but she decides to allow it for now. It actually felt kind of nice to let loose for the first time in almost month. She closes her eyes, getting lost in the music. When she opens them again, Damon's standing in front of her, blue eyes boring into her green.

The last time she had danced with Damon had been during the 60's decade dance when her head had mostly been consumed with thoughts of possibly dying in order to destroy Klaus. This dance was a lot less tense, more free.

"Do I even wanna know what you did to the guy I had just been dancing with?" Bonnie asks, her speech is a little slurred from all the alcohol. She doesn't bother trying to raise her voice, knowing that Damon can hear her over the music.

"He was a loser," Damon answers, bending low by her ear so that she can hear him.

"If I didn't know you, I'd think you were jealous," she teases.

"Then it's a good thing you know me." She laughs and allows herself to get swept up in the music and the dance.

By the time the end up in the loft, Bonnie is still feeling buzzed and her feet hurt and she's exhausted as all hell, but she had fun.

"I'm so glad, you convinced me to come here," she says a little too loudly with a big grin. She stands on her tiptoes to press a sloppy kiss to his lips.

And then, before she really thinks about what she's doing, she's kissing him on the lips.

It takes him a moment to respond, but he eventually does. His tongue entangles with hers and his hands wrap around her, pulling her in a little closer. It felt just like old times when she could easily get wrapped up in him and forget everything else.

 _What the fuck are you thinking?_ The more sensible part of her brain screams at her.

"God, I'm sorry," she says, breaking away from him. "I'm screwing things up when they're actually good. And I'm drunk. I'm going to go sleep." She half-runs, half-stumbles to her room.

God, she really hopes she didn't just royally fuck everything up.

* * *

Damon watches as the door shuts behind her.

His lips were still burning from her kisses and his mind can't help but drift back to what they had just a little over a month ago.

To him, it had been a real relationship in all but name. And as much as part of him wants to deny it, he wants that back. He wants  _her_ back.

Somewhere in between drinking buddies and friends and then fuck buddies, he'd fallen for her. And he's shoved it down and denied it as much as he could. Because, honestly, he could never imagine that someone like Bonnie Bennett would ever want him.

But as his fingers come to touch the lips that still burn from her kisses, he can't deny it anymore.

The only thing was…would Bonnie Bennett ever actually want him like that?


	9. Chapter 9

Thankfully when she wakes up her hangover isn't too bed. Her mouth is dry as hell and her head hurts a little, but at least she's not hugging the toilet for dear life like that time she got black-out drunk during Halloween from one of Tyler Lockwood's special mixes.

Her dignity, however…she had pretty much stomped that into the ground weeks ago.

She cautiously makes her way out of the bedroom, towards the kitchen unit. Damon was standing at the stove, flipping some pancakes.

There's already a plate waiting for her, blueberry and whipped cream vampire face and all. She smiles a little at it, despite herself.

She then decides that she's not going to bring up last night and hopes that Damon doesn't do the same.

"So about last night…"

_Oh, fuck my life._

"I was drunk and I wasn't thinking and I'm so embarrassed. Please just forget about it," she groans, rubbing her face with her hands.

"What if I don't want to?" He asks, turning around to look at her.

She freezes. "What?"

"What if I don't want to forget it?" He repeats.

He licks his lips and swallows thickly. Is he really just going to lay it all on the line like this?

"Here's the thing: I  _was_  jealous last night. I can't exactly tell you how or when, but somewhere along the way, I've wanted you as more than a friend," he says.

Whirlwind doesn't even begin to describe her thoughts and she doesn't know what to say. Damon never lays all his cards on the table, especially not like that.

And she? She had no idea how she feels.

"Wow…" She whispers, "I, uh…wow." She pauses. "Honestly? I don't know how I feel, Damon. I just got out of a relationship and we've just started getting our friendship on track and I…I don't know."

She bites her lip, waiting for it, expecting him to get upset or angry or both.

He licks his lips again and nods, but says, "How about this: You let me take a couple days while we're here in New York to show you what it could be like if we were in a relationship and then decide what you want. And if you decide that you don't want to be in a relationship"

Bonnie's green eyes snap up to meet his in surprise. She hesitates, but then asks herself,  _What could a few days hurt?_

"Okay," she replies a little breathlessly.

He grins.

"Just wait, Bonnie Bennett. I'm going to show you that can rock your world without any sex."

* * *

They end up going to the Met because Bonnie really wanted to. Even though she could only draw stick figures (and even those were atrocious), she'd always had an appreciation for art.

"Grams always used to take me to the fine arts museum down in Richmond," she tells Damon as she stands in front of Van Gogh's  _Irises._ "Now, that I think about it, I don't think I've been there since she died."

Awkward silence.

"Sorry," she says, clearing her throat. "I'm being all depressing and stuff and…anyway, thanks for coming with me. I know this isn't exactly your scene."

"What're you saying I'm not cultured?" He shoots back, mock offended.

"Well…" She trails off and laughs at the look on his face and takes his hand to pull him over to the next painting.

* * *

"I didn't know you could cook," Bonnie says that night as Damon prepares dinner. "Well, I'm mean other than pancakes, but it's pretty hard to screw up pancakes."

She's perched up on the counter nearby with a wine glass in hand as she watches Damon.

"I'm Italian," he answers. "It's kind of demanded."

"I can't cook worth crap, I even ruin pancakes. Which you think I would have figured out how to cook since I'm basically on my own all the time," she admits with a small laugh.

He looks up at her from the vegetables he's cutting. "Well, then, I'll have to teach you."

"Seriously?" She asks. "Better people than you have tried and failed and regretted it. Even Grams couldn't help me," she warns him with a teasing smile.

"Here," he says, gesturing her to come closer and offering her the knife in his hand. "Finish cutting the vegetables."

Eyebrows raised, she sets her wine glass down and pushes off from the counter and takes the knife from him.

"Well, first thing I can tell you is that you're holding the knife wrong," he points out.

She pauses and looks over at him. "I may not be able to cook, Chef Salvatore, but I do know how to cut things."

"Yeah, like your fingers because you're holding the knife wrong. Also, the nicknaming thing is  _my_ thing."

She opens her mouth to say something more, but he's suddenly behind her, his arms moving around her so that his hands can rest on top of hers.

"This," he says in her ear, moving her hands and fingers into the right position. "Is how you hold the knife and this," he moves with, slicing through a vegetable, "Is how you cut properly."

She can feel her heart pounding a little faster and goosebumps dot along her skin and she's sure that Damon notices it as well.

"I think you're just looking for an excuse to touch me," Bonnie tells him, trying to play it off.

"Can't blame me," he answers.

It ends up being the best dinner she ever has.

* * *

It was their last night in New York and they had decided to end it the same way they had started; at that same nightclub.

She was more mindful of her alcohol intake and Damon was sending more than enough warning vibes to any guy her looked her way. She never once thought she'd like the whole jealous boyfriend thing and she has plenty of limits when it comes to that sort of thing, but she can't help but like the feeling of being desired.

When they end up back at the loft in the wee hours of the morning, she changes into a tank top and yoga pants and decides to flip through some TV channels before settling on one, still feeling a little too wired to go to sleep.

" _Breakfast at Tiffany's?_ Could you be any more of a girl?" Damon teases her, settling down next to her on the couch.

"Hey, don't get all misogynistic on me," Bonnie scolds, smacking him on the shoulder. "This movie may be cheesy as all hell, but it's a classic for a reason."

"Hmmm…I suppose you could have worst taste," he decides.

"Thanks," she replies sarcastically.

She moves closer to him and snuggles in. Part of her wishes that they could both just stay in this loft forever like this, while the other part still isn't sure what she wants.

She's not delusional enough to think that if she started a relationship with Damon, a  _real_ relationship that things would always be how they are now. He was impulsive and reckless and didn't care much for others' thoughts and feelings. And she…she was always unsure, always too caring about what others' thought and felt.

But she also knows that when Damon loves, he loves  _hard._ And she wants to know what it feels like to be loved like that. But she's also seen what happens when Damon loves like that and it's more than a little scary, too. Still, she's almost positive that if she doesn't give this a try, she'll forever be wondering what could have been.

_So then, what are you unsure about?_ She asks herself.

* * *

"So, have you reached a verdict, yet?" Damon asks as he walks her up to the front door of her home the next afternoon.

They had spent the entire car ride in an uncomfortable silence with Damon's classic rock music in the background, neither one daring to think. Bonnie's thoughts raced a mile a minute the entire time.

"I've been thinking about all the reasons why I shouldn't," Bonnie admits. "I just got out of a relationship, Elena would never forgive me for it and neither would Jeremy, I'm a witch and you're a vampire, but…" she pauses. "But the more I think about it, the more I realize those are excuses. Half the time I'm confused and I don't know what I want and I look for the safer options because I  _am_ afraid of stepping outside of my comfort zone and I'm always thinking too much about how other people will feel. But I also know that when you love, you put  _everything_ into it and I'd be lying if I said that I don't want to know what it feels like to be loved that way, but it's also a little terrifying because I've seen how it consumes you and that also terrifies me because it's not good for  _you_." She pauses again. "But I do want to give this a try, a  _real_ try. We can figure out the rest as we go," she finishes with a small smile.

He smiles back at her. It's not one of his half-smiles or smirks. It's one of those rare genuine smiles.

He bends down and presses his lips to hers.


	10. Chapter 10

Things aren't easy when they return and people begin to find out about their relationship.

Caroline can't quite believe it, but as long as Damon treats her well, she accepts it. She and Elena were slowly be getting back on track, but they had an unspoken agreement to not unnecessarily bring up her relationship with Damon.

Jeremy doesn't speak to her, not that she blames him. She still feels bad about everything that went down, but she's not sure if anything can be done to make it better.

For the most part, things are good with Damon. There's hiccups here and there, but nothing they haven't managed to get through.

Bonnie eventually finds herself ready to take the next step. It probably shouldn't be that big of a deal because it's not like she and Damon haven't had sex before…they'd had  _a lot_ of sex. Except, this time they were in an actual relationship and she couldn't help but feel some butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

She chooses a time that she knows Stefan and Elena will be at the Gilbert's lake cabin so that they don't have to worry about interrupting.

"Hey," Damon says as he walks in. He glances at her as he sheds his leather jacket and then quickly does a double-take.

She's sitting on his bed, back up against the headboard. A white corset pushes her breasts up enticingly while white lace panties cover up some choice bits. Her hair frames her face in soft curls and she looks like an angelic vision of desire.

"Happy birthday to me," he says. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Well," she suddenly becomes bashful, looking down and picking at her cuticles. "I mean, I know we've done this before, but now that we're in a real relationship, I want to make it special and…"

He interrupts her by striding over to her and sealing his mouth over hers. She moans a little as their tongues entangle and her arms come up to wrap around his shoulders. His mouth moves from hers to her check and down her neck until he reaches the top of her breasts where her flesh met the fabric of the corset.

"Much as I'm happy with you taking your sweet time, do you mind getting me out of this thing? I think my spleen is about to rupture from this," she says with a breathy little laugh.

"And here I was hoping to talk into wearing these all the time," he says, running his fingers along the strings at the front of the corset. His fingers nimble undo the knot and pulls the laces out, freeing her from the constricting garment.

He wastes no time, his mouth quickly latching onto a nipple while a free hand comes up to grip her other breast, teasingly squeezing the fleshy globe. She gasps and arches into his touch. Her fingers dig into his shoulders a little harder when his mouth switches to her other breast.

He pulls back to press his lips to hers again. Not breaking the kiss, Bonnie pushes him back a little bit and follows him until they're both on their knees. She fumbles a little with the buttons on his shirt, but eventually manages to get them undone.

Bonnie pulls back so that she can take breath. Her hands run across his alabaster chest and she leans in, pressing her lips against his clavicle and trailing her kisses down to his sternum. She smiles against his skin when she hears him groan slightly.

His hands trail down her bare back until they hook under her thighs. He picks her up and lays her flat down against the crisp, white bedding. Her hair fans out around her head like a dark halo.

A hand trails down his stomach until it reaches between her legs. He teasingly runs his knuckles across her center, which was still covered with the white lace of her panties. She lets out a small gasp and arches a little into his touch.

His fingers hook underneath the waistband of the white fabric and she lifts her hips so he can slide it off of her. He pulls back so he can gaze at her head to toe. Normally, she thinks she would have felt a little shy and have tried to have covered up. Instead, she feels sexy, wanted, desired.

He reaches down and pushes lightly on a thigh, encouraging her to spread open for him. He then settles between her legs and Bonnie's convinced that she's actually going to explode before he even begins.

He presses a chaste kiss on top of her mound before moving to engulf her with his mouth. She groans and her hands shoot down, fingers entangling in his dark hair as his tongue seeks out her sensitive clit.

"Fuck, yes," she gasps, her hips moving against his face as he suckles the little nub into his mouth. He slips two fingers into her, her channel fluttering around the digits.

As she comes down from the high, he presses soft kisses against her belly. He pulls back to shuck his pants off and she sits up. A hand on the back of his neck pulls him down for a kiss while her other hand moves down to firmly grip his erection. He groans as her hand moves lightly up and down, teasing him.

He kisses her harder, pressing her back until she's lying back down. His hands move down to grip her thighs and guides them up, so that she wraps her legs around the small of his back. Her lips break away from his with a gasp as he smoothly slides into her.

"Mmm, I've missed this," he whispers in her ear before nibbling at the lobe, which tickles and makes her laugh a bit.

"I think it's so much better this time around, though," she whispers back.

He smiles and kisses her again before he begins to move. He keeps the pace slow but steady while her hands cling to his biceps tightly.

"A little faster?" she asks breathlessly, her hips moving up to meet his. He's more than happy to comply with her request.

She moans and throws her head back. There's the familiar sensation of something like a rubber band being stretched in the pit of her belly. His hand reaches down to gently massage her clit and that rubber band feeling snaps inside of her.

After a few more strokes, he finishes after.

When she comes back to reality, she opens her eyes and looks back up at him and sees that his vampire face has come out. She reaches a shaky hand out to trace the prominent veins beneath his eyes.

"It's okay," Bonnie says, her voice coming out in gasps. "I trust you." She tilts her head back, baring her throat in silent invitation.

He looks at her, his surprise almost showing. He'd never expected it in a million years. A strange feeling enters his chest and his heart almost feels like it's about to burst.

He presses his lips against her neck, tongue darting out to taste her skin. He finds her pulse point and gently sucks on it, making her moan.

There's a moment of pain where his fangs slide into her neck, but it's only momentary. She finds herself becoming lost in the moment, feeling his mouth against her vein, the small sounds of his swallows, her hands clutching at him tightly. She doesn't think she's ever been this close to  _anyone_ her entire life.

It's intoxicating.

When he pulls back, she's a little dazed and he rips into his wrist and presses it against her mouth, encouraging her to drink so she would heal.

"You know I'm never letting you go now, right?" Damon says when she lets go of his wrist and he flops down on the bed and gathers her up and pulls her closer.

"I think I'll be okay with that," she replies, resting her head on his chest. "I love you," she whispers.

"I love you, too."


End file.
